Remembering Development Pioneer Jerry Lawson

In honor of Black History Month, Ars Technica has posted a retrospective on the work of Jerry Lawson, one of the most influential black developers from the early days of computing. Lawson was the chief hardware engineer for Fairchild Semiconductor's game division in the 1970s, making him very influential in the development of the Fairchild Channel F, one of the first video game consoles. In that role, Lawson helped create the first console with its own microchip, the first console to use removable cartridges, the first console that allowed players to play against the computer and the first console that allowed players to pause their games.

Lawson was honored for his contributions by the Game Developers Association in 2011, and he passed away just one month later.

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